Report to the People

So, did you mange to consume your own bodyweight in mince pies? Did you avoid a greeting match by remembering to get all the right batteries for the kids’ toys? Did your brother-in-law refrain from drinking every last drop of your decent whisky?... (more)

It’s an irony that, while medicine and health technology continue to be at the cutting edge of innovation, health care systems seem stuck in the past... (more)

The tragic case of Mark Cummings, the eight-year-old schoolboy murdered by a sex offender who lived in the same block of flats, was outrageous both for the nature of the crime and for the way it was allowed to happen... (more)

To the outside observer and even a humble backbencher, politics can be a slow business. The wheels of government seem to take an age to grind. But, if you make your case often and persuasively, grind they do... (more)

As I’ve mentioned before, nearly every day, week and month in the year is dedicated to some cause or other. November, for example, is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. And, as sometimes happens, the Scottish Parliament marked it with a Member’s Debate... (more)

How many MSPs does it take to change a light bulb? None. They’re all, for one reason or another, in handcuffs. (Or so it would seem, if you believe certain sections of the press.)... (more)

With acres of newsprint devoted to the controversy over banning smoking in pubs and the prospect of more to come when the legislation begins its parliamentary journey, I will spare you yet another examination of the plans’ merits or otherwise... (more)

Whereas one of my married colleagues, according to the salacious Sunday press at least, has been having a sordid affair with a tabloid journalist and enjoys attending “alternative lifestyle friendly” social clubs down in Manchester, I have been celebrating the birth of my third grandchild. Talk about being made to feel your age... (more)

Never mind a Scottish Parliament Chamber full of rowdy MSPs just back from a long lunch. Never mind a mass meeting of 200 angry boilermakers. Friday night saw me addressing one of the most intimidating meetings of my life – the Greenock Philosophical Society... (more)

The way the criminal justice system treats (as if that’s any way to describe it) victims and witnesses has long been somewhere between contempt and suspicion... (more)

Not exactly doing my bit to dispel the outrageous and defamatory myth that politicians would turn up for the opening of an envelope, I managed to attend two official openings last week... (more)

Picture the scene. It’s the end of the summer holidays and your suntan’s fading as fast as the evening light and the memories of your poolside fortnight. It’s also exam results day. And all over the country, teenagers wait anxiously by their letterboxes, or pace the hall carpet bare, pausing only to phone friends to find out what they’ve heard and to swap the latest rumour... (more)

On Thursday, a Bill to protect emergency workers cleared its first parliamentary hurdle... (more)

The phrase “more heat than light” could have been invented for parliamentary debates on the Holyrood fiasco... (more)

While I’m not about to start handing out cigars, I do welcome the Health Minister’s positive response to my call for any final decisions on Health Board redesign plans to be deferred until the advisory group on the future shape of the NHS has reported... (more)

Isn’t it typical? There I was, having just opened the first ever member’s debate in the Scottish Parliament, and the microphones break down... (more)

Many men of a certain age would say that the delicate subject of prostate trouble is one which is close to their heart. But that’s probably because 42% of them don't know where their prostate is... (more)

It is a fact of life that, no matter how egalitarian the society, the voices of the influential will, by definition, carry more weight than those of the masses... (more)

It probably won’t come as much of a surprise that, in the USA – where the obese try to sue McDonalds for selling them the food which made them fat – there is an annual award for the most frivolous legal action... (more)

The recent media coverage about the deeply distressing issue of self-harm brought home some uncomfortable truths about what we as humans can do to ourselves and each other... (more)

Saturday’s march and rally in support of Inverclyde Royal Hospital and against the Health Board’s plans for its downgrading was an ideal opportunity for our community to turn up the heat on the health bosses. I hope the message it sent was clear – we are not going to lie down and let them foist this ill-conceived plan upon us... (more)

Having one or two more important things to worry about at the moment, I’ve not been following the SNP leadership contest in any great detail. But it does look a strange affair. Already there have been more twists than at the Gala Casino’s pontoon table and more plotting than you’d see at the Royal Society of Chart-makers’ annual dinner... (more)

Los Angeles, controversial US comic Bill Hicks once commented, is the home of the “pedestrian right of way law.” What this means is that, if you’re in your car and a pedestrian crosses the road ahead of you, you are legally required to slow down or stop to let them cross (as opposed, presumably, to speeding up and running them over)... (more)

If you’re lucky enough never to have been diagnosed with cancer, put down your paper for a moment and, having taken a second to count your blessings, reflect on how the news might make you feel... (more)

Thursday saw the last ever parliamentary debate in MSPs’ temporary home on The Mound. As we prepared to hand sole occupancy back to our theological landlords in the Kirk, I suppose it was appropriate to ask “why are we here?”... (more)

It was often said of John Swinney that he was too nice be leader of the SNP. A charge, I am happy to say, which has never been levelled at any of his likely successors... (more)

In among the hectic round of meetings, correspondence and discussions about the flawed plans for Inverclyde Royal Hospital, last week also saw an important piece of work come to an end. After over a year in the legislative machinery, the Antisocial Behaviour Bill has finally cleared its last parliamentary hurdle... (more)

The perception of the Health Board’s controversial Clinical Strategy is that it’s a done deal; that we can’t influence the debate. This is reinforced by the fact some have already accepted defeat and are more interested in who they can hang when the worst comes to pass... (more)

NHS Argyll and Clyde’s plan, as outlined in its recently published Clinical Strategy, to cram most of those in need of emergency or inpatient services into a hospital which is already struggling to cope with its current numbers – the full-to-bursting RAH – is, at best, dubious... (more)

It is remarkable to see, as David Cairns and I did on our recent visit there, how regeneration has transformed the Leith waterfront. It has gone from an area of rejection, to a very attractive commercial and residential sector. In place of its old shipyard, for example, stands the Ocean Terminal shopping complex. Elsewhere, derelict warehouses have been replaced by new flats, retail outlets, leisure facilities and offices – bringing jobs, money and growth... (more)

Whether the Scott Lithgow’s, Tate and Lyle and Kincaid’s of yesterday, or the IBM, T-Mobile and National Semiconductor of today, the brands with which Inverclyde is associated are famous throughout the world... (more)

As it looks like we’re making our first tentative steps towards the summer, it’s tempting to think back to crackly black and white memories of the halcyon summer days of old. Those endless, glorious afternoons; the long balmy evenings; an ice cream, a bag of chips and your bus fair home – all for less than a shilling... (more)

Last week wasn’t quite the Dickensian best of times and worst of times – even the most melodramatic commentator would hesitate before comparing a week in the Scottish Parliament to the French Revolution – but it did have its ups and downs... (more)

The top speed of the giant tortoise is some 0.17 miles per hour. A three-toed sloth has been clocked at 0.15mph, whereas the poor garden snail struggles to reach 0.03 on the speedometer. All three, however, look like thoroughbred racehorses when compared to the pace at which the criminal courts can deal with serious offences... (more)

As you might expect, most real political work is done, not through trading insults in a debating chamber or the columns of the press, but through quiet, constructive diplomacy... (more)

Joining Bonnyrigg dentist, Mr D Kay and Enfield solicitor, Anderson Fiddler in the unfortunate business name charts is a company which gets conned into releasing a dangerous murderer onto the streets and calls itself, of all things, “Reliance.”... (more)

Happy Easter! I think congratulations are in order. If you’re reading this, then you’ve made it to the last day of the Easter weekend without losing your sight, a hand or your reading glasses in some tragic DIY calamity... (more)

Having been involved, in one way or another, in various pieces of industrial action throughout my life, I know only too well that the longer a dispute drags on, the more entrenched the positions become and the further away compromise slips... (more)

OK. Here’s a quick test of lateral thinking. What do a wedding for Elton John in Alloa and Kenyan sex advice have in common?... (more)

If it doesn’t degenerate into a pretentious ramble about the “harm principle”, “relativism” and other pop-philosophy soundbites, a public discussion on the subject of “rights” is likely to inflame passions on both sides... (more)

Last March, James Herd was beaten to death whilst standing at a Glasgow bus stop. He didn’t know his killer and the attack was completely unprovoked. Not only was it unprovoked, it was particularly brutal. His assailant set about him with a metal pole, then proceeded to jump on his head like, according to reports, “a trampoline.”... (more)

It’s the day we hope never comes – the day when your parents finally become too frail to care for themselves, or serious illness leaves a loved one in need of care in a hospice... (more)

Since its publication in 1998, Dr Andrew Wakefield’s controversial research which linked the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to childhood autism has been criticised by independent experts around the world. Last week’s revelations that he was also receiving cash to uncover evidence which parents, convinced the jab had harmed their children, could use to sue the manufacturers, look like the last nail in the report’s coffin... (more)

At the Scottish Parliament’s Environment Committee the other week, Lib Dem MSP, Nora Radcliffe, moved an amendment to the Nature Conservation Bill which would make it an offence to disturb birds. Reports are already reaching us that Frank McAvennie has fled the country... (more)

Back in the swinging sixties, my pals and I were denounced by our elders as layabouts in need of a decent haircut and a few years National Service. And, despite our solemn vow that we would never become such bitter old nuisances, it’s now our generation’s turn to grumble into our beer about the bone-idle, square-eyed, spoilt lard-buckets who represent the country’s future... (more)

I was pleasantly surprised last Thursday to see Tory MSPs electing to use a bit of their chamber time to put forward for debate some real ideas on an important issue... (more)

Powerful media figures facing up to the toughest challenge of their lives; a rare insight into how those who are normally so self-assured react under intense pressure; the drama of seeing them leave one by one, until only a single winner is left. But if you could tear yourself away from “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here” last week, you might have noticed that the Hutton Report got the odd mention in the news... (more)

It’s not surprising that, when the issue of drugs comes up for debate, any suggestion of softening our stance is met with anger and concern in communities like ours. We have seen firsthand the damage which drugs do to users, their families and society at large... (more)

Unless you’ve been hiding with Beagle 2 in a hole on Mars for the last week, you will be aware that the HM Inspectorate of Education has delivered a damning indictment of Inverclyde’s (lack of a) school building programme... (more)

You meet them all in this job. A couple of months ago, a woman who had helped her mother buy her council house – a flat she loved in a friendly, well-kept tenement – came to me for advice... (more)

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good festive season. Of course, if you were lucky enough to get a break over the holidays, it’s now back to earth with a bump. The kids jumping on your bed demanding you get up and take them to the pictures is replaced with the monotone tyranny of the alarm clock. Lunching on the couch with 2 remote controls and a selection box is replaced with a sandwich at your desk. And your neckwear today seems dreadfully dull compared to your hilarious musical Santa tie, which has been consigned to the back of the drawer for another year... (more)